All the Arts, All the Time

San Francisco Ballet's distinctive profile

November 8, 2008 | 3:05
pm

Helgi Tomasson, who has been artistic director of San Francisco Ballet since 1985, previously spent 15 years as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, and he is scarcely the only danseur noble to have moved from the stage to backstage. Anthony Dowell, Peter Martins and the late Erik Bruhn are other examples. But how does such ex-dancers' experience in front of audiences affect the companies they run later?